Drying-room.



v 1. H. THERIEN.

DRYING ROOM.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 8, 190?. RENEWED AUG. 16,1917. 1,951,987.

Patented Jan. 1, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

Iii. Tiwrem.

Atty

J. H. THERIEN.

DRYING ROOM.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 8. 1901. RENEWED AUG. 16. I91].

Patented Jan. 1, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 Inventor: 172C? fierzfew.

JOSEPH HILAIRE THEZRIEN, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

DRYING-ROOM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 1, 1918.

Application filed November 8, 1907, Serial No. 401,342. Renewed August 16, 1917. Serial No. 186,652.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J osnrH HILAIRE THE RIEN, a citizen of the United States, and resident of the city of San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Drying-Rooms, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention contemplates improvements in drying apparatus wherein the exsiccation is accomplished artificially by heated air forced upon or through the articles that are to be relieved of moisture. It is chiefly applicable to drying-rooms for laundries and similar establishments that attend to the washing, bleaching, or dyeing of textile fabrics, though with obvious modifications it can advantageously be employed also in desiccators for fruit and other produce. The improvements in view relate to the general structure of the apparatus, its heating and ventilation, and the means and method of imparting motion and pressure to the hot air therein; These will be set forth in the following description, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, with particular reference to a laundry dryingroom.

In the said drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the drying-room, the front thereof being removed to expose the interior construction; Fig. 2 is a broken view, alsoin perspective, of the front part of a rack for curtain-frames used in the room; Fig. 3 is a top view of the heater; Fig. at is a detail; Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the said rack for curtain-frames; Fig. 6 is an enlarged section of the same, on the line 6-6, Fig. 5; Figs. 7, 8, and 9 are respectively a side view and front and sectional elevations of a combined rack adapted to receive and hold various articles for drying in the room; and Figs. 10 to 13, inclusive, are de tails of several clothes-hanging devices capable of use in connection with the latternamed rack.

The numerals 1, '2, 3, and 4 represent, respectively, the floor, side walls, and ceiling of the drying-room. These parts are made to inclose the racks 6 and 7, hereinafter described, the front and rear panels of which, and framing therearound, constitute togethcr the front and rear walls of, and complete, the box-like structure in which the clothes are to be dried. The materials of construction for all parts include wood covered with asbestos, and sheet-steel in and out, except at times the flooring, which when made of cement or concrete, is usually left uncovered, being fit for use in that state. Air-chambers are formed in the walls, asat 8, Fig. 1.

A room of standard size for the drying of linen, cotton, and woolen articles, may be said to measure approximately seven and one-half feet in width, depth, and height, the same inclosing four overhung racks like the one marked 7 in Figs. 7 8 and 9. Such a room may be used with or without the addition of the rack 6 (Figs. 2, 5 and 6), which is made to hold peculiarly-constructed frames for lace curtains, fancy bed-spreads, and embroidered articles of all sizes. These are the frames previously referred to as curtain-frames, which is their trade-name, used for the sake of conciseness herein. If the rack 6 be employed, the room is built proportionately larger to contain it. In the latter case, enough is added to the breadth and length of the room to provide an appropriate compartment 9, which preferably will be extended out as shown in Fig. 1, to form an L with the room and thereby afford sufficient space to lodge a rack for the longest curtain-frames available, without altering the standard of the major portion of the room. The rack 6 may thus be one-third longer, or thereabouts, than the racks 7 which can be made comparatively lighter. A door 10, adapted to slide in suitable guideways, constitutes the inner wall of the outwardly-projecting portion of the compartment 9. This door is arranged to slide inward, to the position indicated by the dotted line 11, and upon being pushed back, uncovers the rack 6 so that access may be had to it throughout its entire length on tne sliding-door side, without drawing the rear part of the rack farther out than the front line of the main body of the drying-room.

The rack 6, above referred to, is borne at the base by wheels or sheaves 12, arranged to ride upon a half-oval rail 13, that extends centrally and longitudinally within and out of the aforedescribed compartment 9; and at the top, the rack is steadied by guides 14:, projecting upward from corner castings thereof and disposed so as to bear on the opposite sides of a square-edged rail 15, fas

tened to the compartments ceiling and otherwise supported outside by brackets or hangers bolted to the sides of the room or to the building in which it is situated. Figs. 1, 2 and 5. As previously mentioned, this rack is built to accommodate a plurality of frames designed for holding lace-work and other delicate fabrics, ranging in size from a chair-tidy to a large window-curtain or a wide counterpane. Each one of these frames (Figs. 2, 5 and 6) comprises two vertical ogee bars 16 and 17, that are fixed in the rack; two horizontal ogee bars 18 and 19, which are capable of adjustment up or lown as may be required; and one follower-bar 20, also vertical, and adapted to perform the function of either the bar 16 or 17, when the frame is used for the drying of small pieces. The four ogee bars comprised in the frame contain each within its inward curve a row of outwardly-pointed pins 21, the four rows lying in the same vertical plane and forming a quadrilateral figure, upon which the larger pieces to be dried are hung. The follower bar will not ordinarily be an ogee, as the flatter and beveled form given to it in Fig. 6 is preferred. This bar (20) slides freely past the pin points within the ogees, and also carries a row f pins (21) coacting with the rows or parts of rows adjoining the same on the other members of the frame. In order to afford a firmer hold on the articles to be dried, large or small, the pins on the vertical members 16, 17 and 9.0, are placed so as to slant off from those on the horizontal members 18 and 19, as suggested in Fig. 6. The horizontal members 18 and 19 are held upon and adjusted. along the members 16 and 17 by iron strips 22, secured to the ends of said horizontal members, andcarrying each a T-bolt 23, the head of which enters a suit able groove in the opposite vertical member, 16 or 17 respectively. Each groove is covered by a slitted steel band 24, through which the shank of the bolt 23 passes, and against which the bolt is tightly drawn and set by means of a winged nut 25. The follower-bar 20 is maintained in its adjusted position by U-shaped spring clips 26, adapted to clamp it to the adjoining parts of the horizontal bars 18 and 19, against which it rests, as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. These views show two curtain'frames of. different sizes, located side by side in the rack 6 and held in position by corner posts 27 and retaining boards 28, to which the vertical members 16 and 17 are nailed. Two such frames usually suffice, but additional frames are provided whenever required.

As before stated, a drying-room of the standard size will contain four racks similarto the one represented by Figs. 7, 8 and '9. These racks 7 may be termed clothes racks, inasmuch as they comprise devices of various desi ns intended to receive, and hold for drying, all ordinary clothes sent to a laundr for washing, for example, white or colored shirts and underwear, collars and cuffs, bed and table linen, etc. The several clotheseracks are suspended from overclothes-racks are adapted to travel, and

from which they are held suspended, through the agency of hangers 30, fastened to their inner and outer ends, and sheaves 31. The sheaves are journaled inside the hangers in pairs, bearing on the opposite edges of the tracks, one sheave on eachside of the upwardly-turned central web of the T, in each instance. This arrangement insures the smooth and easy riding of the clothesracks in and out of the room. The racks 7, it will be understood, are otherwise properly balanced, and they are further steadied, each by means of a bottom'guide consisting of a steel band set on edge and held between angle-irons 33,, and arranged so as to pass in and through a notch cut across the base-board of the room, in front (Fig. 1). 7

Each rack 7 is constructed to hold a plurality of clothes-hanging devices, such as are illustrated in Fig. 7 and Figs. 9 to 13, inclusive, to which a brief reference will now be made.

The preferred form of shirt-hanger is shown in Figs. 7 and 10, the same being made of band-iron 35, placed on edge be-' tween reinforcing angle-irons 36, and slitted. so as to providea continuous series of clownwardly-projecting points which upon being appropriately curved form hooks 37, adapted each to carry a wire holder 38. This holder is detailed at Fig. 13. The hooks 37, it will be seen, all point forwardly, in the direction of pull on the rack, so that an entire row of shirts thereon, when dried, may be unhooked and gathered up with one sweep of the arm by the attendant in cl'iarge. Two shirt-hangers are usually provided in one rack, as Fig. 7 indicates.

The hangers for collars andcuffs consist ofwire rods 39, slightly curved upward at the ends, as seen in Figs. 10 and 11. One whole rack is usually reserved for collar-and-cuff hangers of this type. In the upper part of the rack, the rods 39 are secured to and across the iron band 35, which may or may not have the hooks 37 for shirts, as preferred. Below the said band, therods 39 are carried by sections of pipe 10, flattened at the ends, as at 41, to enable them to be squarely seated on the middle soles of triple brackets 42, such as are shown in Fig. 9. These collar-and-culf hangers are sometimes used in connection with the shirt-hangers before described, that is to say, in the same rack, as illustrated in 7, which shows what is called a combined rack,a-lluded to in the short description of the figures comprised in the drawings hereto annexed.

Fig. 12 represents, on a. rather exaggerated scale, a tubular hanger 43, similar to the pipe for collars and cuffs but without the hooks. This hanger isbest adapted for the drying of large soft pieces, as bed-sheets and the like. Being hollow, the hanger 43, as well as the pipe 40, may be said to include a central air-chamber which prevents overheating and to that extent has a softer action on the clothes hung thereupon. The lateral soles of the triple brackets 42 (Fig. 9), which are separated from the aforesaid middle soles by ribs 44, receive the ends of the hanger 43 and are so located that two such hangers may be placed on a level, with their ends resting on a pair of opposite brackets, and the clothes thrown across both hangers. The central band 35 of the shirthanger could remain between the latter, and the hooks thereof used for holding smaller articles, as the operator will easily understand. The improved drying-room herein de scribed is satisfactorily heated either by steam or by fuel-gas, at option. A steamheater is shown in the drawings, Figs. 1 and 3. This comprises two hollow columns 45, 46, and separate lines of piping 47 running each on an incline from one column to the other. All the pipes are thus inclined in the same direction. The columns are conveniently placed in the forward corners of the main room, one (45) to let in the steam and distribute it to the upper ends of the several pipe lines, and the other (46) to let out the spent steam and condensation from the lower ends of the pipes. Both columns are made alike, each with two vertical rows of alternate openings, 48, 49, into which the pipes are screw-threaded, but the column 46 is inverted with relation to the column 45, so that the rows of openings in the columns will fall on different levels, being comparatively high in one and low in the other, and the entire pipe system will have the desired inclination. This feature, combined with the arrangementof the pipes in separate lines, that is to say, without intercommunication and return bends as in ordinary coils, insures a more efficient flow of steam through the system, with less friction and better drainage. The pipes are made to extend along the two sides and across the back of the main drying-room, the system of pipes stopping short of the compartment 9, preferably. At the sides, the several lengths of pipe are disposed alternately in different vertical planes, according as they register with the corresponding openings in their respective columns, but at the back they are all brought into the same plane, as best seen in Fig. 3, so that they may bear upon or sustain one another. Collectively, the pipe system is supported at thebase, some dis tance from the floor, by props '50 (Fig. 1), the two columns properly holding the end-s forward. The column 45 receives the steam inlet-pipe 51, controlled by a globe-valve'52; and to the column 46 is similarly fitted the outlet-pipe 53, which. also is furnished with a valve (not shown).

In order to secure the quick drying of the articles placed in the room, it is indispensable not only to agitate the air therein, but also forcibly and constantly to drive down ward the heat emanating from the steampipes so as to keep it in contact with the articles and cause it to displace and expel the moisture with which they are charged. This is most satisfactorily accomplished by means of a rotary fan 54, arranged so as to revolve in a horizontal plane, and having fro-m three to six blades curved upward and inclined all at an angle of from thirty to forty-five degrees, with their upper edges distant but a fraction of an inch from the ceiling of the room. Figs. 1 and 4. As

indicated in the latter figure, the hub of the fan is secured to the lower end of an upright shaft 55, which passes through the roof of the room and has the usual beltand-pulley connections with a prime mover outside. tively, in either direction. To insure its thorough operation, the several blades of the fan are made of sufficient length to extend and sweep across practically the entire area of the ceiling under which it is hung, that is, within the main room, as ordinarily it is not desired that the fan should reach into the curtain space comprised in the confines of the compartment 9, although its effects are felt there. It has been ascertained through practical experience in drying washed clothes, that this improved fan can be revolved with advantage at three dif ferent speeds, to wit: rather slowly for fiannals and woolen goods; at a medium rate for plain linen; and at the highest velocity for starched pieces, which seem to require the quickest drying action. However, much should be left, regarding this matter, to the judgment of the operator having charge of the drying apparatus and its contents.

Provision is made to ventilate the dryingroom by the admission of fresh air from without, through a series of apertures 56 provided in the front base-board, and by the expulsion of the vapor-laden atmosphere Such a fan may be turned, effecwithin, through a flue 57 located back of raised-side of the heater, and not appreciably higher, if at all, than the level of its lowermost pipes on the opposite side, so that practicallynone of the heat is carried away by the out-draft up the flue. It is known that the efficiency of a flue is dependent upon its heigat, and therefore the flueis extended, as at 60, to the highest point possible above the room, unless it can be connected with some chimney, in which case the connection therewith is made from the flue at any desired elevation. If the surroundings be favorable, the draft thereby obtained will be sufficient to effect good drying in the room without the use of the fan, though the drying, of course, will be slower.

Shields 61, consisting preferably of impe-rforate plates made of galvanized sheetsteel, are placed over the steam-pipes M, for the full length and height thereof on the opposite sides of the room, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 3. These shields are on the sides of the pipes nearest to the open sides of the racks 7. They are provided to protect the clothes hanging loose from the holders in their respective racks, against any harmful contact with the pipes, which contact could not well otherwise be prevented, oi ing to the action of the fan 54, and would result in the clothes becoming soiled or overheated. Furthermore, the said shields are utilized to isolate the steam-pipes from the open-sided racks and wet clothes therein, so that the hot air which would otherwise immediately come nto contact with the latter, first rises to the ceiling of the room, where it spreads about the fan in a substantially dry state. Thence the dry hot ai-ris repelled and forced downward by the fan, mostly upon the Wet clothes thereunder, but partly also into the lateral compartment where the curtains are suspended.

It may be noted that the object in having the fan 54 entirely within the main room, off the compartment 9, and placing the ventilating-fiue in the farther part of said compartment, is to produce a milder air-zone in the space intervening between the heater and the remote side of the rack 6, where the curtain-frames are located. This is beneficial to the lace curtains and embroidered articles, which being of open work are best dried in an atmosphere that is less hot and agitated than the air impelled directly downward by the fan, and less damp than that of the clothes beyond the shielded steam-pipes.

A drip-pan 62 is attached to the under side of the fan 54, to catch and retain any oil or sediment that may fall from the journal-bearing thereof and would otherwise drop upon and stain the clothes contained in the room. Figs. 1 and l. This pan is conveniently made of tin. It is provided with an inwardlyscurvedflange 63, and integral strap G l, through which'it is secured to the fan by means of the same bolts that fasten the bladesof the fanto its arms and hub. The pan 62 consequently revolves withthe fan 54, and it has proved to be effective in filling the purpose for which it as devised.

hat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. A drying-room having a space wherein moist articles may be exposed, a raised heater at one side thereof, means isolating saidheater so as to lead the heat therefrom into said space'above said articles, a fan operating to drive the heat .and moisture downwardly past said isolating means, and a flue drawing from the underside of the heater.

2. A drying-room provided with heating means disposed at certain levels on two sides and at one end thereof, one or moreopensided racks for moist articles closed relatively to the heating means at said end of the room, a fan rotatable above said articles, and shields isolating the sides of said racks so as to prevent the moisture spreading directly from the articles to the side heating means. I

3. In a drying structure, a main room adapted to contain moist articles, heating means on plural sides thereof, a compartment in communication with one of said sides, a rotary fan centrally located adjacent to the ceiling of the room above the space bordered by said heating means, in position to drive down the rising heat directly into said space and laterally into said compartment, and means serving to isolate the heating means from the lower part of the room so as first to lead up the heat therein under said fan.

4. A structure consisting. of a main room and a lateral compartment communicating therewith, means for heating the structure, a plurality of clothes-racks in the main room, a rack for one or more curtain-frames in the compartment, and a fan rotatable either way in a horizontal plane above the clothesracks and located to one side of the curtainframe rack, and means for ventilating the room through the compartment.

5. An inclosed structure comprising a main room and a compartment communicating therewith, clothes-racks in the room, a curtain-frame rack in the compartment, a heater between the clothes-racks and the curtain-frame rack, a horizontally-disposed fan operated within the room,.and suitable ventilating means.

6. A drying-room including a plurality of clothes-racks, overhead tracks therefor consisting each of an inverted T-shaped rail,

hangers at the upper ends of the racks, a pair of sheaves in each hanger adapted to ride on the opposite edges of the T-rail along the Web thereof, a guide projecting downwardly from the bottom of each rack near the floor of the room, and a heater located above the room floor and extending a suitable distance alongside the clothesracks.

7. In a drying structure, a main room, a compartment communicating with the room and being disposed coextensive with one wall of the room and having one end thereof projecting beyond the said wall of the room, the inner wall of the compartment at said projecting end of the latter being movable inwardly to permit access to said projecting end of the compartment.

8. In a drying structure, a room, inclined heating means extending along two sides and one end of the room, and moist air eX- hausting means located in the space between the highest points of the lower side portion of the heating means and the floor of the room.

9. In a drying structure, a main room, a compartment in communication with the room, heating means between the room and compartment, a rack movable in the coinpartment and means whereby the rack may be completely exposed Without completely removing same from the compartment.

10. In a drying structure, a main room, a compartment of greater length than the room in communication with the latter, heating means between the room and compartment, and means for enabling access to the compartment.

Signed at the city of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this, 19th day of September, A. D.

JOSEPH HILAIRE THERIEN. 'W'itnesses GEORGE H. GILMAN, A. H. STE. MARIE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. r 

